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Pneuma 31 (2009) 213-224
The Making of a Trinitarian T eologian: The Holy Spirit in Charles Wesley’s Sermons
Jason E. Vickers
United T eological Seminary, 4501 Denlinger Road, Dayton, OH 45426, USA
Abstract
This article contends that, from 1738 to 1742, Charles Wesley developed a robust account of the work of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, by integrating his refl ections on pneumatology into his wider theology, he evolved from a largely binitarian to a decidedly trinitarian understanding of salvation. While the article focuses primarily on the emergence of a strong pneumatology in Charles Wesley’s undisputed sermons, it also provides occasional sideways glances at similar themes in his hymns and poetry.
Keywords
Charles Wesley, John Norris, William Law, Holy Spirit, trinitarian, sermons, hymns
In 2001, the ability to conduct scholarly research on Charles Wesley’s theology was greatly enhanced with the publication of Kenneth G. C. Newport’s critical edition of Charles’ss sermons.1 The volume has a twofold organizational pat- tern. First, Newport divides the sermons into authentic or undisputed ser- mons (Sermons 1-13), followed by sermons whose authorship is contested (Sermons 14-23). Second, Newport arranges the sermons in each section chronologically from earliest to latest, placing sermons whose dates are uncer- tain at the end of each section.
In this essay, I limit my research quarry to the undisputed sermons in Newport’s critical edition. The goal of the essay is to note the development and shape of Charles Wesley’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the undisputed sermons. I will show that there are two signifi cant developmental stages in
1
The Sermons of Charles Wesley: A Critical Edition, with Introduction and Notes by Kenneth G. C. Newport (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). I will refer to this volume as SCW, and I will cite both the relevant sermon number and the page number.
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.1163/027209609X12470371387769
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Charles’s understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. The first developmen- tal stage is related to Charles’s evangelical conversion in the period 1738-39. During this period, Charles begins to pay attention to the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. Despite initial signs of interest in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, however, it will be some time before Charles fully integrates the doctrine into his wider theological vision.
The second developmental stage constitutes the real fl owering of Charles’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit, if not the maturation of the whole of his theology in a trinitarian direction.2 For example, there is an explosion of references to the Holy Spirit in the period 1740-42. More importantly, during this phase Charles fully integrates the doctrine of the Holy Spirit into the wider frame- work of his theology. The result is the emergence of a robust trinitarian under- standing of the Christian life, the center of gravity of which is a doctrine of the divine indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Charles’s doctrine of the divine indwelling of the Holy Spirit is so central to his mature theological vision that he makes it the criterion of true Christianity.
The Holy Spirit in the Early Sermons
The first development to be noticed has to do with a striking diff erence between the earliest undisputed sermons (sermons written and/or preached prior to 1738) and those preached in the period 1738-39 and following. To those familiar with research on the life of Charles Wesley, this will come as no sur- prise. T ere has long been a scholarly consensus that Charles, like his more famous brother, John, underwent a signifi cant evangelical conversion experi- ence sometime around 1738-39.3 To call attention to this event in Charles’s life, many scholars divide Charles’s life into pre- and post-Pentecost phases. One of the lingering disputes among scholars has to do with the texts and persons most directly responsible for Charles’s evangelical conversion. For example, some scholars argue that William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout
2
For more on Charles Wesley’s trinitarian theology, see Jason E. Vickers, Invocation and Assent: The Making and Remaking of Trinitarian T eology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), chap. 6; and idem, “Charles Wesley and the Revival of the Doctrine of the Trinity: A Methodist Contribution to Modern T eology,” in Charles Wesley: Life, Literature & Legacy, ed. Kenneth G. C. Newport and Ted A. Campbell (Peterborough: Epworth Press, 2007), 278-98.
3
For Charles’s life, see Gary Best, Charles Wesley: A Biography (London: Epworth, 2006); Arnold Dallimore, A Heart Set Free: The Life of Charles Wesley (Westchester: Crossway Books, 1988); and T. Crichton Mitchell, Charles Wesley: Man with the Dancing Heart (Kansas City: Beacon Press, 1994).
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and Holy Life (1728) was most directly responsible for Charles’s conversion.
4 Other scholars maintain that Charles’s encounter with the Moravian leaders Nikolaus von Zinzendorf and Peter Bohler was chiefl y responsible for his con- version.5 In my judgment, any quest to identify one source that was directly responsible for Charles’s conversion is misguided from the outset. It seems more likely that a perfect storm of encounters with a variety of persons and texts combined to precipitate a change in Charles’s theology as well as in his personal disposition toward God.
Whatever the infl uences that precipitated his evangelical conversion, careful study of the development of Charles’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the undis- puted sermons suggests that his evangelical conversion in 1738-39 was accom- panied by the first signs of interest in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. T us there are few, if any, references to the Holy Spirit in the sermons preced- ing 1738-39. For example, in the first undisputed sermon — a sermon on Christian perfection as “the goal of our religious race” — Charles describes the “several steps to perfection” as involving determination, endurance, singleness of focus, and the like, but there is no reference to the Holy Spirit as aid in these endeavors.6
Similarly, in the second undisputed sermon — a sermon on the importance of full devotion to God — Charles declares, “We say then that a state of vol- untary imperfection, a half course of piety, a life divided between God and the world, is a state which God has nowhere promised to accept nor yet assured us of a reward for it.”7 Once again, the emphasis falls squarely on the need for personal striving. The Christian life is one that requires great concentration and eff ort, and there is no clear indication that help is available in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the only reference to the Holy Spirit is to the Spirit’s role in condemning the Laodiceans for their half-heartedness.8
Finally, in the third undisputed sermon, Charles refl ects on the way in which Christian virtues stem from the graces of humility, faith, hope, and love. Even here, Charles’s theological outlook is largely binitarian, as references
4
See Frederick C. Gill, Charles Wesley: The First Methodist (London: Lutterworth, 1964). For additional evidence concerning Law’s impact on Charles, see Newport, The Sermons of Charles Wesley, 17-18.
5
See Newport, The Sermons of Charles Wesley , 18-19.
6
SCW, Sermon 1, 95 ff . Charles purportedly preached this sermon while on board the Sim- monds in October 1735.
7
SCW, Sermon 2, 116. According to Newport, this sermon was preached at least four times in 1736.
8
SCW, Sermon 2, 117.
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to the work of the Holy Spirit are noticeably absent. The Holy Spirit’s com- forting, illuminating, and equipping activities are nowhere in sight in these early sermons on perfection and the Christian life.
The first signs of any interest in the theological signifi cance of the person and work of the Holy Spirit occur in the fourth undisputed sermon. In 1738 and 1739, Charles preached this sermon at least twenty-one times.9 To be sure, the focus of the sermon is once again the Christian life, but for the first time in a sermon, Charles begins to think critically about the activity of the Holy Spirit. Here, Newport’s chronological organization of the undisputed sermons may reveal one of the most important contributing infl uences on this aspect of Charles’s theology. In the first sermon in which Charles shows sustained interest in the activity of the Holy Spirit, he quotes extensively from John Norris’s Practical Discourses on Several Divine Subjects (1690).
The passages that Charles quotes from the Practical Discourses describe the correspondence between the “three laws” of scripture and the “three moral states of human nature.” In short, “the law of sin” corresponds to the state in which persons “embrace sin purely and entirely,” the “law of the mind” to the state in which persons “refuse, and stand averse to sin in some certain respects as evil, but yet do in eff ect will and choose it, by choosing it sometimes,” and fi nally, “the law of the Spirit of life” to those persons “who absolutely and thoroughly refuse to commit sin.”10 In Charles’s subsequent commentary on Norris’s description of the second moral state, Charles attributes conviction of sin and redemption from sin directly to the Holy Spirit, saying, “Such is the language of one whom the Holy Spirit has reproved of sin, but not rescued from it.”11 T us, in the undisputed sermon corpus, Charles’s first developed reference to the activity of the Holy Spirit has to do with the Spirit’s role in convicting persons of sin and ultimately rescuing them from sin. Charles goes on to refer to the activity of the Spirit in fulfi lling the promises of Scripture to a soul “thus disposed for Christ,” giving special attention to the activity of comforting and bringing assurance of salvation.12
At this stage, despite initial signs of interest in the activity of the Holy Spirit, Charles has yet fully to integrate the activity of the Holy Spirit into his theology. It is clear, however, that he has begun to pay attention to the role of the Spirit in the Christian life. It is, of course, impossible to know whether this
9
SCW, Sermon 4, 130.
10
SCW, Sermon 4, 134. The quoted material here is from Norris. 11
SCW, Sermon 4, 140.
12
SCW, Sermon 4, 145.
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change is due solely to Charles’s reading of Norris. Nevertheless, it is clear that Norris’s Practical Discourses were infl uential in directing Charles’s attention to the work of the Holy Spirit.
In the next two undisputed sermons, references to the Holy Spirit are once again infrequent. However, there is one crucial development to be noted. Paraphrasing numerous Scripture passages, Charles argues that “divine faith” is strictly the result of the activity of the Holy Spirit and not the result of learn- ing or demonstration. T us he says,
You were not born with faith, where then and when and how did you come by it? Learned you it from books or men; by reasoning upon what you have read or heard? Hereby you might acquire a human but not a divine faith. You can demonstrate, as may every thinking man, that Christianity must be of God, but if you think you there- fore believe, you deceive your own souls, and the truth is not in you. ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: faith is the gift of God; no man can call Jesus the Lord but by the Holy Ghost; fl esh and blood cannot reveal it unto him. Faith standeth not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. It must be wrought by a stroke of omnipotence. It is the Holy Ghost alone who purifi es the heart by faith .13
Despite this strong statement, the activity of the Holy Spirit is once again almost entirely absent from the sixth undisputed sermon. Yet, as the seventh undisputed sermon will make clear, the real fl owering of Charles’s theology of the Holy Spirit was just around the corner. Indeed, beginning with the seventh sermon, there is a virtual explosion of references to the Holy Spirit. More importantly, we can see Charles beginning fully to integrate the activity of the Holy Spirit into a robust trinitarian understanding of the Christian life.
The Flowering of a T eology of the Holy Spirit
In the seventh undisputed sermon, Charles begins by noting the activity of the Spirit in convicting persons of sin and in rescuing them from it. T is time, however, Charles paraphrases numerous Scripture texts, developing an under- standing of the wider revelatory activity of the Holy Spirit. Most importantly, he situates the revelatory activity of the Holy Spirit in the context of a robust trinitarian doctrine of divine revelation. In a passage well worth quoting at length, Charles declares,
13
SCW, Sermon 5, 159-60 (emphasis added). The paraphrases of Scripture include the fol- lowing texts: Matt 16:17, 1 Cor 2:5, and Acts 15:8-9.
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So our Lord assures us no man can come unto the Son except the Father draw him. No man cometh to Father, but by the Son. T ey only believe, to whom it is given to know the mind of Christ. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish- ness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. God hath hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomseoever the Son will reveal him.14
Charles continues,
Tese and numberless other Scriptures demonstrate the impossibility of believing God hath given us the spirit of revelation. We can never know the things of God till he hath revealed them by his Spirit, till we have received the Son of God that we should know the things which are freely given us of God. For this cause Jesus is called the author of our faith, because we receive in one and the same moment, power to believe and the Holy Ghost, who is therefore called the Spirit of faith. And a true faith we cannot have till God gives us the Holy Ghost purifying our hearts by faith.15
In the same sermon, Charles goes on to attribute the shedding abroad of God’s love in believers’ hearts to the ongoing activity of the Holy Spirit. Comment- ing on this aspect of the Spirit’s activity, Charles explains that the Spirit enables all believers to keep Christ’s commandments in love by delivering them “not only from the guilt of sin but also from the power of sin.”16 Up until this point, Charles has focused on the Spirit’s activity in convicting persons of sin, bringing persons to the knowledge of the Father and the Son, aff ecting a gen- uine disposition of “divine faith,” and assuring believers of their salvation. For the first time in the undisputed sermon corpus, Charles here expands his doc- trine of the work of the Holy Spirit to include power for living the Christian life, for keeping the commandments, and for loving God and neighbor. To be sure, Charles has referred to the “power of the Spirit” in other sermons, but this is the first time that he specifi cally adds that the Spirit’s power enables us to serve and to love.
The next thing to notice in this sermon concerning Charles’s conception of the work of the Holy Spirit is the development of a doctrine of divine indwell-
14
SCW, Sermon 7, 201.
15
SCW, Sermon 7, 202 (emphasis added). 16
SCW, Sermon 7, 202.
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ing. Indeed, it is with the emergence of the doctrine of divine indwelling that we see Charles developing an even more robust trinitarian understanding of the Christian life — an understanding that culminates in human persons becoming “partakers of the divine nature.”17 He writes,
This is the greatest and most glorious privilege of the true believer: whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God: and hereby knoweth he that God abideth in him, by the Spirit which he hath given him. He that believeth hath the witness in himself, even the Spirit of God bearing witness with his Spirit that he is a child of God. Christ is formed in his heart by faith. He is one with Christ and Christ with him. He is a real partaker of the divine nature. Truly his fellow- ship is with the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son are come unto him and make their abode with him, and his very body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.18
Finally, Charles brings the seventh undisputed sermon to a close by recapitu- lating the major themes that he has been developing in a powerful trinitarian benediction. He declares,
Now to God the Father, who first loved us and made us accepted in the Beloved; to the Son who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to God the Holy Ghost who sheddeth abroad the love of God in our hearts, be all praise and all glory in time and in eternity.19
The eighth undisputed sermon is one that Charles preached in April 1742 before the University of Oxford. In this sermon, observes Newport, Charles set out to awaken persons that he considered to be “in a state of spiritual som- nolence.”20 Together with the previous sermon, this constitutes the full fl ower- ing of Charles’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Of greatest signifi cance is the way in which Charles once again develops the doctrine of the indwelling activity of the Holy Spirit within a wider trinitarian framework that culminates in per- sons becoming “partakers of the divine nature.” This time, Charles develops the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through a series of powerful rhetorical questions, beginning with the goal of union with the triune God and working backwards to the divine indwelling. T us he asks,
17
2 Pet 1:4.
18
SCW, Sermon 7, 203 (emphasis added). Charles paraphrases the following Scripture texts: 1 John 4:15, 1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:13, 1 John 5:10, Gal 4:19, 2 Pet 1:4, 1 John 1:3, John 14: 23, 1 Cor 6:19.
19
SCW, Sermon 7, 210.
20
SCW, Sermon 8, 211.
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Are thou ‘partaker of the divine nature?’ Knowest thou not that Christ is in thee, except thou be reprobate? Knowest thou that ‘God dwelleth in thee, and thou in God, by his Spirit which he hath given thee’? Knowest thou not that ‘thy body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which thou hast of God?’ Hast thou the ‘witness in thyself,’ ‘the earnest of thine inheritance’? Are thou ‘sealed by that Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption’? Hast thou received the Holy Ghost?’ Or dost thou start at the question, not knowing whether there be any Holy Ghost?’21
Having stressed the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in enabling persons to become “partakers of the divine nature,” Charles returns to this theme moments later. This time, Charles raises the stakes even higher, making the reception of the Holy Spirit and the partaking of the divine nature the criterion of Christian identity and the marker of “true religion.” He says,
Yet on the authority of God’s Word and our own Church I must repeat the question, ‘Hast thou received the Holy Ghost?’ If thou hast not thou art not yet a Christian; for a Christian is a man that is ‘anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power.’ T ou art yet made a partaker of pure religion and undefi led. Dost thou know what religion is? T at it is a participation in the divine nature, the life of God in the soul of man : ‘Christ in thee, the hope of glory’; ‘Christ formed in thy heart,’ happiness and holiness; heaven begun on earth; a ‘kingdom of God within thee,’ ‘not meat and drink,’ no outward thing, ‘but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’22
As in the previous sermon, the wider trinitarian framework of Charles’s mature doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit is plain to see. Moreover, the center of gravity for Charles’s doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit remains a doctrine of divine indwelling. T us Charles adds,
Ye see your calling, brethren. We are called to be ‘an inhabitation of God through his Spirit’; and through his Spirit dwelling in us ‘to be saints’ here, and ‘partakers of the inher- itance of the saints in light’. . . . The Spirit of Christ is that great gift of God which at sundry times and in divers manners he hath promised to man, and hath fully bestowed since the time when Christ was glorifi ed. T ose promises made to the fathers he hath thus fulfi lled: ‘I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.’
23
21
SCW, Sermon 8, 218 (emphasis added). Charles here paraphrases the following Scripture texts: 2 Pet 1:4, 2 Cor 13:5, 1 John 3:24; 4:12-13; 5:10, 1 Cor. 6:19, Eph 1:13-14; 4:30, Acts 19:2.
22
SCW, Sermon 8, 218 (emphasis added). Scripture paraphrases include: Acts 10:38, Jas 1:27, 2 Pet 1:4, Col 1:27, Gal 4:19, Luke 17:21, Rom 14:17, Phil 4:7, and 1 Pet 1:8.
23
SCW, Sermon 8, 220 (emphasis added). Scripture references include: 1 Cor 1:26, Eph 2:22, Rom 1:7, 1 Co. 1:2, Col 1:12, Heb 1:1, Ezek 36:27.
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Having appealed yet again to the doctrine of divine indwelling, Charles removes any remaining doubt that he regards this doctrine as the criterion of Christian identity. T us he says, “He is a Christian who hath received the Spirit of Christ. He is not a Christian who hath not received him.”24 Finally, he concludes,
He is Antichrist whoever denies the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, or that the indwell- ing Spirit of God is the common privilege of all believers, the blessing of the gospel, the unspeakable gift, the universal promise, the criterion of a real Christian.25
Conclusion
It must be admitted that the preceding analysis of the development of Charles Wesley’s theology of the Holy Spirit is based on a rather narrow selection from Charles’s total literary output. As such, the conclusiveness of this study awaits confi rmation from other extant materials from this period of Charles’s life, for example, from Charles’s letters and hymns. To that end, one observation worth making at this stage is that the so-called “conversion hymns” from the 1738- 39 period are largely, if not entirely, binitarian. This adds to the evidence in the sermons that Charles’s attentiveness to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit increased dramatically some time after his evangelical conversion experience.26 Further initial evidence from the hymn corpus can be seen in the way that the follow- ing hymn from 1740 encompasses many of the themes in the sermons from this period, most especially the theme of the divine indwelling of the Spirit:
I want the spirit of power within, Of love, and of a healthful mind: Of power to conquer inbred sin, Of love to thee and all mankind, Of health, that pain and death defi es, Most vig’rous when the body dies.
When shall I hear the inward voice Which only faithful souls can hear? Pardon and peace, and heavenly joys
24
SCW, Sermon 8, 221.
25
SCW, Sermon 8, 222 (emphasis added).
26
For the three so-called “conversion hymns,” see John Tyson, ed., Charles Wesley: A Reader (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 101-4. See also Dallimore, A Heart Set Free 61-63; and Mitchell, Charles Wesley, 70-71.
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Attend the promised Comforter. O come, and righteousness divine, And Christ, and all with Christ is mine!
O that the Comforter would come! Nor visit as a transient guest, But fi x in me his constant home And take possession of my breast; And fi x in me his loved abode, The temple of indwelling God!
Come, Holy Ghost, my heart inspire!
Attest that I am born again! Come, and baptize me with fi re, Nor let thy former gifts be vain. I cannot rest in sins forgiven; Where is the earnest of my heaven?
Where the indubitable seal
T at ascertains the kingdom mine? The powerful stamp I long to feel, The signature of love divine!
O shed it in my heart abroad,
Fullness of love — of heaven — of God!27
Leaving aside for the moment Charles’s hymns, poems, letters, and other materials, it must also be admitted that the analysis is based on eight of thir- teen undisputed sermons. It is only fi tting, then, that we say a word or two about the fi ve remaining undisputed sermons. In the fi ve remaining undis- puted sermons (Sermons 9-13 in the Newport edition), Charles has little to say about the work of the Holy Spirit, and there are no new developments of any signifi cance. Sermon 9, while fascinating in its own right, does not develop the doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit in any new ways. Indeed, references to the Holy Spirit are few, as Charles here focuses on the issue of theodicy in light of the great London earthquake. Sermons 10-13 are most likely from the 1738-39 period, but Charles makes few references to the Spirit in them. T ey
27
Hymn 365 in The Works of John Wesley , vol. 7 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983), 534-35. It is worth noting that many of the themes related to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit that we have observed in the sermons from the early 1740s are present in this hymn, e.g., the Spirit as com- forter, inspirer, and a robust doctrine of divine indwelling that leads to the “fullness of love” and “of God.”
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certainly do not exhibit the robust doctrine of the Holy Spirit that character- izes the undisputed sermons in the years that followed.
What can we safely conclude on the basis of eight undisputed sermons? First and foremost, we can conclude that between 1738 and 1742 there is a marked increase in Charles’s attentiveness to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Second, during this same period, Charles is actively at work integrating the doctrine of the Holy Spirit into the whole of his theology. T ird, Charles pro- gresses from a binitarian to a distinctly trinitarian understanding of the Chris- tian life during this period. Fourth, we can conclude that a major center of gravity in Charles’s theology during this period was a strong doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Finally, for Charles, the end of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is nothing less than human persons being caught up in the triune life of God, that is, in our becoming “partakers of the divine nature.”28
Bibliography
Best, Gary. Charles Wesley: A Biography. London: Epworth Press, 2006.
Newport, Kenneth G. C., ed. The Sermons of Charles Wesley: A Critical Edition, with Introduction
and Notes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
28
I would like to issue a word of caution concerning the temptation to draw parallels between Charles’s doctrines of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, and the Christian life on the one hand, and the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis on the other. Without question, there are superfi cial paral- lels. For example, Eastern Orthodox theologians are fond of quoting the “partakers of the divine nature” text in 2 Peter 1:4. Also, Eastern Orthodox theologians tend to interpret this text within the wider framework of the doctrine of the Trinity. Despite these surface parallels, however, it is not entirely clear that Charles’s understanding of the “partakers of the divine nature” text is identical to the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis. Neither is it clear that Charles’s way of understanding the Trinity is identical to, say, the Eastern Orthodox fathers’ way of understand- ing the Trinity. All that can be said at this juncture is that, in the period under consideration, there is an emerging trinitarian pattern to Charles’s theology and that Charles sees the end of the indwelling activity of the Holy Spirit as enabling human persons to become “partakers of the divine nature.” The extent to which these themes in Charles’s theology are similar to or even dependent upon Eastern Orthodox sources is a matter for further investigation. In my judgment, Richard P. Heitzenrater’s conclusion that there is a lack of strong textual evidence to support the thesis that John Wesley was deeply infl uenced by Eastern Orthodox sources applies to Charles Wesley as well. For this judgment concerning John Wesley’s knowledge and use of Eastern Ortho- dox sources, see Richard Heitzenrater, “John Wesley’s Reading of and References to the Early Church Fathers,” in S. T. Kimbrough, Jr., ed., Orthodox and Wesleyan Spirituality (Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002), 25-32. Also see Randy L. Maddox, “John Wesley and Eastern Orthodoxy: Infl uences, Convergences, and Diff erences,” in Asbury T eological Journal 45, no.2 (1990): 29-53. For a fascinating look at possible Eastern Orthodox sources for Charles’s theology, see S. T. Kimbrough, Jr., ed., Orthodox and Wesleyan Spirituality, chaps. 11-14.
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Tyson, John, ed. Charles Wesley: A Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Vickers, Jason E. Invocation and Assent: The Making and Remaking of Trinitarian T eology. Grand
Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008, chap. 6.
———. “Charles Wesley and the Revival of the Doctrine of the Trinity: A MethodistContribu-
tion to Modern T eology,” in Charles Wesley: Life, Literature & Legacy, edited by Kenneth
G. C. Newport and Ted A. Campbell, 278-98. Peterborough: Epworth Press, 2007.
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